The College Board shows textbook and supply costs at public two-year institutions has outpaced four-year private and public institutions. OER and other affordable learning solutions provide a cost-saving alternative to students. Learn how one large public two-year institution has implemented a zero-textbook-cost degree program and develop your institutional strategies!
With the cost of attending college a primary concern for students and their families, you may ask yourself what you can do to help mitigate some of that expense. Certain costs may be out of your hands, such as tuition or housing. However, you might be able to influence the price students pay for textbooks at your institution and bring that number down to $0.
The open educational resources (OER) movement or OER is not new but has been gaining momentum through state and federal support. Faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and others at institutions around the world have been using openly licensed materials in courses instead of more costly publisher materials to deliver quality instructional content to students for free! Yes, free! These materials are free to use, revise, copy, share, and post. You can contribute your own work as well.
Well, what about zero-textbook-cost courses or degrees? How are they different than regular OER. Zero-textbook-cost courses and degrees utilize institution library databases and freely accessible online material in addition to OER. When paid for by the institution, this can include all rights reserved videos and movies, research articles, digital books, images, simulations, and more. Students still never see the expense, but benefit from a wealth of content.
Commuter students often incur additional expenses traveling to and from campus. They may have to pay for public transportation, shared transport, purchase a car, repair a car, put gas in a gas, and etc. The online modality presented in this zero-textbook-cost degree program also reduces the expenses from commuting to and from campus.
You may be wondering how you can get started at your institution. Perhaps you want to know about providing student services, testing, and tutoring? Or you think it is too good to be true? Do you have questions about the benefits of the zero-textbook-cost degree to faculty? These questions and more will be answered. Join us for a hands-on session as we dialogue, design, and develop our way to quality zero-textbook-cost degrees for our students!
Instructional Strategies/Level of Participation
This session incorporates the use of technology for engagement during the introductions and to help the facilitators understand the audience. Modeling is used as an instructional strategy throughout the workshop as the facilitators first present how it was done at the case institution, then they dialogue in small groups to develop strategies they can use at their institutions. By the end of the session, they will be able to take away tools to help them achieve their zero textbook cost and OER goals at their institution.
Session Goals
By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe how one institution developed and implemented a zero-textbook-cost degree program to reduce the total cost of an online degree for students. They will actively engage in discussion about best practices for implementing and promoting an OER or zero-textbook-cost program at their institution. Finally, participants will use OER resources to develop strategies for implementing a similar zero-textbook-cost degree program at their institution.